Alex Bitney a graduate from Kharkov National University of Radioelectronics, Ukraine has recently passed his MPhil viva at WIT with a thesis on ‘Designing and implementing a unified object metadata model for general data entry systems and data validation routines’. The external examiner was Dr Gary Wills from the University of Southampton and the internal examiner was Dr Andres Peratta.

In the thesis the different aspects of data entry computer systems are investigated and different existing approaches in building such systems are described. The idea of a unified metadata model runs throughout the thesis and is described in detail and observed from different points of view. Typical data entry form patterns are collected, generalised and included in the model. As part of the project, the special domain-oriented language for expressing metadata is developed, having its roots in relational DDL used by SQL servers. Added object-DDL with extensions are sufficient for instant production of sophisticated GUI screens for operator-assisted data entry. The reference implementation of the code is also given, and its features are compared with existing solutions, showing its applicability to the broad spectrum of tasks.

Alex presented a first class MPhil thesis and as a result of his research both examiners recommended that he be awarded the degree of Master of Philosophy.